![\"Princess](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/princess-bajrakitiyabha-greeting-supporters-in-bangkok-2020-5KQI6H72FRCCRLNQIE4MQDGQJI.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThailand\u2019s Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol \u2013 a lawyer and the eldest of King Maha Vajiralongkorn\u2019s children \u2013 has died at 47, the Bureau of the Royal Household said.<\/p>\n
She died on Thursday evening (local time) at a Bangkok hospital where she had been cared for since falling unconscious due to illness three years ago, according to the statement issued Friday.<\/p>\n
Bajrakitiyabha was active in justice reform efforts and best known for her Kamlangjai, or \u201cInspire,\u201d project to help rehabilitate incarcerated Thai women ahead of their release.<\/p>\n
Bajrakitiyabha was admitted to hospital in December 2022 after falling unconscious while training dogs for an army exhibition. The palace said she had a mycoplasma infection, a bacterial infection usually associated with pneumonia.<\/p>\n
Her father’s New Year\u2019s greeting card for 2023 showed King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida garbed in sombre black, which many Thais saw as confirmation of the gravity of her condition. The limited information released in subsequent years indicated a deterioration in her condition.<\/p>\n
The princess was born on December 7, 1978, to Vajiralongkorn, who was the crown prince at the time, and his then-wife, Princess Soamsawali. Vajiralongkorn has seven children by three of his four successive wives. Bajrakitiyabha was also known by the royal name Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, used in formal state settings.<\/p>\n
Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the youngest of the king\u2019s children, is the presumptive heir because sons take precedence in Thailand’s line of succession. But Bajrakitiyabha’s experience in public service raised speculation she was set to hold an important role in any future succession, perhaps as regent to a youthful monarch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Princess Bajrakitiyabha greeting supporters in Bangkok, 2020. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Bajrakitiyabha studied law at Thammasat University then went to Cornell University in New York state, where she earned a master\u2019s degree in law in 2002. She earned a doctorate at Cornell in 2005 with a dissertation concerning the protection of the rights of the accused. Scholarships to Cornell Law School and a program for the exchange of legal scholars between Thailand and Cornell were later established in her name.<\/p>\n
After working briefly at the Thai Mission to the UN in New York City, she returned home and worked as a public prosecutor. She renewed her diplomatic career with an appointment as Thailand\u2019s ambassador to Austria from 2012 to 2014 before returning to her homeland to concentrate on criminal justice issues. In 2017 she was appointed a goodwill ambassador for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.<\/p>\n
In addition to working for the rehabilitation of female convicts, she was involved in other projects including a campaign to enhance the living conditions of women prisoners and promoting efforts to stem violence against women as an honorary UN goodwill ambassador for women. Her efforts led to the UN General Assembly adopting the \u201cBangkok Rules\u201d on care and conditions for female prisoners.<\/p>\n
\u201cSociety cannot grow if there is instability and injustice,\u201d Bajrakitiyabha said in a 2013 interview with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the rule of law, without a good justice system, it\u2019s always chaos,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the rule of law is a very important pillar to development, to economic growth, and of course to human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bajrakitiyabha is survived by her parents and siblings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thailand\u2019s Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol \u2013 a lawyer and the eldest of King Maha Vajiralongkorn\u2019s children \u2013 has died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2300,42,43,135,6747,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-473519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-asia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-royalty","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}